Window wandering, over-bunnying, and a brand new book

Story Street #17

Although it’s the shortest month, a lot seems to have happened in February. The shoal above is from Window Wanderland, I’ve also had a trip to Edinburgh to collect my great-grandfather’s fiddle, and been to a stone age book launch… read on for more on all of these. But I’m going to start by showing you the cover of my new picture book, Mabel and the Big Wide World, written by Paul Stewart and illustrated in collage by me. It’s going to be published by Otter Barry Books on 6^th June – meet Mabel!

Paul’s story is all about a little mouse who is afraid to go outside – until her siblings help her discover the wonders to be experienced outside the safety of the barn. Although it’s still a couple of months to go until publication, you can pre-order the book now. It’s really helpful for launching a book if orders come in early, so do click the button if you fancy a copy, and then it will arrive as a lovely surprise for you in June…

The perils of overbunnying

For the past five or six years, I’ve spent January and February working on illustrations for the Lindt Easter trails at various Historic Royal Palaces sites. The trails are always great fun to illustrate – this year I had to draw all sorts of interesting things, from a Fabergé egg to Charles Dickens.

The first year I had this commission, I was asked to draw lots of Lindt chocolate bunnies and position them on drawings of Kensington Palace and Hampton Court Palace. My instructions were: “don’t over-bunny the palaces”.

This has since become a family catch-phrase. Here’s what happened a few years ago when I over-bunnied the kitchen table… that’s our rescue rabbit Scurvy (on the right!):

Disclaimer: neither of the bunnies pictured above is made by Lindt

The rescue centre had so many rabbits to name, they had a theme per month – and poor Scurvy came in during medical month. She was a lovely rabbit.

If you are looking for some family fun over Easter, do check out what’s happening at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland, and Hampton Court Palace.

Quilts, guinea pigs, and a celebratory cityscape

I had another unusual project to do in February. The National Lottery Heritage Fund asked me to organise an art activity at three events celebrating heritage and community in Newham, Enfield and Brent boroughs. The idea was to create an evaluation exercise for grantees that was fun and visual - just the kind of challenge I love. The Brent event was on a date I couldn’t do, so I teamed up with quilt-maker Russell Barratt, thanks to an introduction from Angela Maddock (whose newsletter The Cloth Botherer is well worth a look if you like textiles).

Russell makes very inspiring quilts using all sorts of things from old hi-viz jackets to a vintage Batman pillowcase - nothing is off-limits. And when I found out that Russell had pet guinea pigs, I knew we’d get on – and we did! You can see his quilts on Instagram here.

By coincidence, I’ve been planning to make a quilt myself, and had recently made a number of painted paper pieces to try and work out the design – and that’s what gave me the idea for how to tackle the evaluation project.

I prepared squares, arches, domes and triangles inspired by modular architecture, using a limited colour palette – and had such fun making my test piece I didn’t want to stop… always a good sign!

At each event, participants created an imaginary cityscape reflecting what makes them feel proud about each borough’s heritage – and the exuberant scenes they made quickly expanded to fill a large roll of paper. The yellow panels are filled with moving comments about what makes communities proud.

So many wonderful permutations arose from the kit of parts provided, and people cut their own shapes to represent everything from Blue Plaques to bicycles and the River Lea. It was so interesting to hear everyone’s stories as they worked.

The second event in Enfield was just as much fun, with some participants going 3D with paper chains and openable doors: the creative urge is a powerful one. I really enjoyed meeting the communities in both boroughs - it was very inspiring.

Window Wanderland

For the last seven years or so something magical has been happening in the depths of winter here in the London suburb of Southfields. Window Wanderland began in Bristol, and has since taken root here and elsewhere. The idea is that you decorate your windows for one winter weekend, so that the street where you live becomes an after-dark, outdoor art gallery.

Over the years I’ve made a kraken, parrots, frogs, tiny penguins, and Moby Dick. This year for the first time I decided to take a ‘stained glass window’ approach, cutting shapes out of black paper then filling the holes with specially prepared painted tissue paper. To my surprise this method turned out to be way quicker and simpler, as well as being more effective – and the finished panels are less flimsy and much easier to hang. I went for a fishy theme, but decided to liven it up with an ‘odd one out’ visual puzzle in each panel.

Here's a glimpse into the process of making the panel:

And here’s my finished window:

Can you spot the accidental Spongebob-themed panel?

Here’s a few of the local highlights…

Why not start one where you live? If you want to know more, I made a video about it on my YouTube channel here:

Usually I end up throwing my windows in the bin when the weekend is over, but this year I was delighted to be able to give them to Albermarle Primary School to hang in their classrooms – I happened to be at the school the day after Window Wanderland to launch a story competition. I was pleased to see that the very next day there was already an entry in the box!

Stone age book launch

My illustrator friend Bridget Marzo had a new book out in February. Mo’s Best Friend (published by Otter Barry Books) is a story about a stone age child domesticating a dog for the first time, and the artwork is stunning. The book launch was great fun with a drumming workshop, and Bridget resplendent in a home made ‘stone’ necklace.

Here’s an activity to go with Bridget’s book that I tried with my weekly nursery group. They loved the story and really enjoyed making their own mini-fires to take home.

A happy reunion

If you read Story Street #14 back in December, you might remember that I took my great-grandfather’s Aberdeenshire fiddle up to Tim Wright Fine Violins in Edinburgh for some much-needed restoration. In February I got an email from luthier Guillaume to say “it is ready to sing in your hands again” – so I booked my train ticket and headed north once more.

I’m still not a very confident player, so I practiced and practiced to be ready for the big moment – the King of the Fairies hornpipe was my go-to tune.

As I sat down to play and drew the bow across the strings for the first time, I was astonished by the transformation – a warm, clear, ringing tone, and with plenty of volume too. It was like playing a Rolls Royce!

I invested in a new bow, and all the scratchy fuzzy sounds I’d got used to have gone. Although I still have a loooong way to go in improving my bowing technique… Thankyou to Guillaume, Helen and Tim for making my family fiddle feel special again. It’s lovely to have it back home.

Off the starting blocks at last!

This time last month it was hourly comics day – and much of that day for me was spent in the violin-making workshop (if you are new to this newsletter, I am making my own violin on a course at Merton College – you can read all about it in Story Street #12). Here’s me on 1^st Feb working away on my mould…

hoping to get it signed off by my tutor, who tested the curves with a ‘four finger Mexican wave’ to check for smoothness…

and finally getting approval!

…before going home and eating my daughter’s crisps (what a terrible thing to do to a hard-working teacher).

Since then, something very exciting has happened at violin-making – I have started my blocks! Each violin has six blocks hidden inside it, to strengthen the structure – and this is the first thing I’ve made so far that will actually be part of the violin. They are not much to look at, and not fully squared off yet, but here they are:

In other violin news, I went along with my fellow students to the BVMA ‘Maker’s Day’, where I was very happy to meet Sheffield-based violin-maker Emma Hardy. I’d heard about her ‘Folk who Roam’ fiddle, with gorgeous ferns carved into the back, and dream of making something similar. You can read all about it on Emma’s Substack here.

Now here we are in March, which kicks off with a bunch of school visits for World Book Day - for us authors and illustrators, it tends to spread into World Book Fortnight. It’s also the time when my doormat fills up with lovely bundles of Zines from around the world for my online comics class Zine swap. I’ll tell you more next month, but in the meantime if you’d like to know about joining next term’s class, all the info is below.

Before I go, here’s a picture for Russell: my first guinea pig. I think I was about 14 and wearing a pair of cream dungarees that I was very fond of…

Thanks for reading Story Street. If you enjoyed it, do share with friends, and if you’re not already subscribed, there’s a handy button below. See you in April!